PA: US gave nod to kill Arafat By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook - November 18, 2005 The Palestinian Authority has recently called for an international investigation into the November 2004 death of Yasser Arafat in Paris. But in a fresh libel PA officials told their own people in Arabic this week that no investigation is necessary, because they have hard evidence that Israel poisoned Arafat - with the approval of the US. In a television interview with PA officials, the following claims and accusations were made:
Allegations that Israel was behind Arafat's illness are not new. In fact, they appeared in the PA media soon after Arafat became ill (see, for example, the adjacent cartoon). However, this week's broadcast, one year since his death, went beyond the general accusations to asserting that his killing by Israel was a fact. This murder libel follows the PMW report this week documenting the ongoing Palestinian Authority drug libel. Both are examples of the current Palestinian Authority policy of artificially initiating hatred of Israel, even as Israel goes to great lengths and takes great risks, to improve conditions for Palestinians. Palestinian Media Watch has frequently noted libels appearing in the Palstinian media. Click here to read some examples from before September 2000, and here to read some examples since that time - including an official sermon from this time last year saying that Palestinians were "absolutely sure" that Israel poisoned Arafat. The following is dialogue from the PA TV program: Bassam Abu Sharif, former adviser to Arafat:
Taysir Al-Tamimi, Chief Justice of Sharia Court of Palestine:
An Arafat aide:
Ahmad Abdul Rahman, Arafat's Cabinet Secretary:
PA Libel: Israel
deliberately By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook - November 15, 2005
The head of a Palestinian Authority drug prevention program accused Israel this week of intentionally "conquering the youth" by supplying drugs to Palestinian Authority areas. This is not an isolated example of hate speech, but part of an ongoing drug libel that has been promoted by the PA leadership for more than six years. The accusations have included the lies that "there is a unit in the Israeli intelligence that specializes in drug distribution among teenagers," and that Israelis confessed to distributing "perfumes that cause their inhalers to become addicted to drugs."
The PA drug libel has been used for
six years. A Palestinian official has even stated that Israelis "encourage the addiction to drugs by a payment of 4,500 shekels to he who proves he's addicted to drugs." Participating in the drug libel are senior PA officials, including the Minister for Social Affairs, the Director-General of War on Drugs, head of the Professional Program of the Supreme National Council for Preventing Drug Distribution, Fatah leaders and others. Libels like these are not harmless insults. They follow a long dark history of anti-Semitic libels, which range from the myth that Jews poisoned wells in the Middle Ages to the infamous 'blood libel,' that Jews used the blood of Christians to make the unleavened Matzah bread for Passover - all of which were used successfully in Europe to arouse hatred of Jews and incite murder.
Whereas the PA leadership is telling its people to curb terror for now because "it damages Palestinian interests," Palestinian Media Watch has documented in previous bulletins that the PA's many-faceted hate campaign continues unabated. These drug libels are just one component of this PA campaign to keep hatred simmering. This campaign is indeed disturbing, as it indicates the PA is still stockpiling hatred for some future time, for if and when it decides that another terror war is in its interest. Palestinian Media Watch has found dozens of examples of the drug libel over the years. The following is a limited selection of such libels, beginning with the most recent examples and going back to 1999. 1. "It is known that drugs are
an imperialist weapon. The Occupation is not interested in conquering
the land alone; it is interested in conquering the youth... The easiest
way for the Occupation to control the youth is … through drugs.
You can see for yourself that a drug user is a man who does not oppose
the Occupation, will not throw a stone and will not do a thing." 2. "Drugs, they fight us with drugs.
They choose various means to fight us. At times by planes and at times
by drugs." 3. "There is a unit in the Israeli
intelligence that specializes in drug distribution among the teenagers
and the youth in our society." 4. "The Palestinian nation is under
a savage attack by the Occupation in all areas. Among them, the role of
the Occupation in distributing drugs in the Palestinian territories." 5. "...The confessions of an Israeli
espionage network who were arrested in Lebanon... They weren't satisfied
in the planning of the [Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan] Nasrallah assassination,
but also distributed harmful Israeli merchandise ... including sport shoes
that cause the person wearing it to suffer paralysis, skin disease and
perfumes that cause their inhaler to become addicted to drugs..." 6. "...In addition to encouraging
drug dealing, Israelis welcome and encourage the addiction to drugs by
a payment of 4,500 shekels to he who proves he's addicted to drugs..." 7. "... There is a clear Israeli
plan to cause many civilians to fall by drug spreading and distribution
among the young... They have become a victim of the Occupation... They
aspire to distribute the disease in the broadest way by lowering prices,
so they can be afforded by the majority of the young..." 8. "The Occupation Authority -
by inserting and distributing them [the drugs] in our districts - wishes
to destroy our ability, and to weaken our beliefs in the resistance against
the occupier." 9. "Since the '67 occupation, there
has been an Israeli attack against the Palestinian youth in Jerusalem.
This attack has many faces with the objective of emptying the youth of
its national values and stripping it of its identity and Arab-Palestinian
belonging, by the distribution of drugs and feeding the society with bad
phenomenon. We have documents proving that the police and the Shabakh
[Israel's internal intelligence service] plan to splinter the Palestinian
youth in the holy city." 10. "The [current] stage of the
Israeli occupation is the stage of the rapid spreading of drugs ... in
our country... The goal of the Israeli occupation is to destroy the national
wealth that manifests itself in our youth…"
Hamas Pre-Election Video: By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, October 27, 2005
Hamas has recently placed on its website a new half-hour video that can only be seen as part of its election campaign. The video reviews what its makers see as recent Hamas successes as well as its plans for the future. The video features military-style training for Hamas terrorists and explicit encouragement of suicide terrorists and their mothers. The well-publicized Hamas plan to destroy Israel is reiterated, as are Hamas plans to remain the "resistance" (the Palestinian euphemism for terror) group of choice for all Palestinian and jihad terrorists. The video has appeared on the Hamas site at almost the same time that the US State Department has made clear that it will make no attempt to block Hamas from participating in the upcoming Palestinian parliamentary elections. The EU and UN have also agreed that Hamas, which appears on official EU and US lists of terrorist organizations, can participate in the elections. Click here to view three minutes of the half-hour video The video includes the following:
Palestinian Media Watch has added a segment of an August 2005 broadcast by Muhammad Deif, commander of Al-Qassam Brigades, the terrorist wing of Hamas (also posted on the Hamas website), in which he reasserts the Hamas goal to "liberate" the Israeli cities of Jerusalem, Safed, Haifa, Jaffa and others.
Horrific
anti-Semitic series now By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook - October 23, 2005 The Diaspora (Al-Shatat), a Syrian-produced TV series depicting how Jews, as ideology and religious conviction, are trying to subjugate the entire world, is now being broadcast for the third time in recent years on Arabic language Satellite TV. It was first broadcast in 2003 on Al-Manar (Hizbollah TV), in 2004 is was aired on Iranian TV, and now it is being broadcast during the Ramadan on Jordanian TV Al-Mamnou [See below about Al-Mamnou]. The series presents itself as an authentic historical depiction of the period of the Zionist movement and revolves around the "Secret Jewish World Government," whose members meet and plan how to control the leaders of the world, and thus, direct all of history. The Jewish Government is shown plotting and causing the Russian Revolution, the World Wars, encouraging the Nazi murder of Jews, and engineering the use of atomic bombs on Japan. The Jews are described as evil and bloodthirsty, interested only in power and world domination. The series also includes horrific distortions of Judaism, including the presentation of the use of a Christian child's blood in preparation of Matzah for Passover, as religious necessity. The graphic episode features Jews kidnapping a Christian boy and slitting his throat to drain his blood, and the brutal execution of a Jew by a "Talmudic" court, by pouring boiling lead down his throat. [Warning: These two links, which appear below, are very difficult to view.] All of the anti-Semitic libels in this series are presented as fact. The following are links to seven representative segments of this series that is now showing on Jordanian TV (Al-Mamnou), as they appeared in 2003 on Al Manar. [Al-Mamnou is an independent Jordanian television station, whose goal, according to their mission statement, is to bring a broad range of opinions to Arabic satellite TV.] To view these segments, click on each topic Full transcripts appear below
PA Hate TV: Israelis murder By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook - October 10, 2005 Two foundations of Palestinian Authority hate ideology are the denial of Israel's legitimacy
as a state and the depiction of Israel
and Israelis as cruel and inhumane murderers. The PA under Mahmoud Abbas
continues to promote this hate ideology. The following are two examples
of these hate messages, as they appeared on Palestinian Authority Television
in recent days.
1. Israeli soldier murders a bride in her wedding gown The Canaanite is a Palestinian-produced series for daily viewing during the month of Ramadan. The story centers on a young man who, according to the script, underwent torture in Israeli prisons and feigns insanity. The scene opens with a bride dancing by herself in her flowing gown on the beach. An Israeli soldier sees her from his watchtower, and then races to the beach to murder her. Her murder is followed by the sick evil laughter of the hook-nosed Israeli soldier. Filfil, the series' hero, runs and holds
the dead woman in the water. Unable to revive her, he stands in rage,
races off and fires his rifle in the air. The next scene sees the hero
wake up- it had all been a dream.
2. PA Play: Israeli cities "Jaffa and Haifa are Palestinian" A play filmed in front of a live audience and broadcast on PA TV shows Palestinian actors depicting terrorists (called "resistance fighters") in Israeli jails. One prisoner recounts how he was repeatedly beaten by an Israeli soldier for saying he came from Jaffa. Jaffa is an Israeli city, part of Tel Aviv, but the PA often defines it is an as "occupied Palestinian city." The soldier insists the prisoner say he is from Gaza. Upon hearing the story, a second prisoner responds, almost in tears, "No, definitely not! Jaffa and Haifa are ours! Jaffa and Haifa are ours!" The studio audience reacts with cheers and applause. This presentation of all of Israeli cities as "Occupied Palestine" is reflected throughout PA society, media and education.
Full text from the PA TV play: Prisoner A: "The soldier asked me, 'Where are you from?' I said, 'From Jaffa,' so he hit me. He asked me again, 'Where are you from?' I said, 'From Jaffa,' so he hit me. I could not stand it any more, so I told him, 'Tell me what to say!' "He said, 'Say you are from Gaza! Jaffa and Haifa are not yours.' Prisoner B: "No, definitely not. Jaffa and Haifa are ours! Jaffa and Haifa are ours!" [Cheers and applause]
PA:
Arab contact with Israel The West views diplomatic contacts between once belligerent countries as an important and necessary step towards peace, and accordingly has welcomed the recent diplomatic contacts between Israel and some Muslim and Arab states. However, these events - notably meetings
between Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and the foreign ministers
of Indonesia, Pakistan and other Muslim countries - has incensed the Palestinian
Authority, which vehemently opposes what it calls the "normalization"
of relations with Israel. The Palestinian National Committee Against
Normalization condemned any movement of Muslim countries towards improved
relations with Israel, labeling such a move "a stab in the collective
back of the Palestinian people." In addition to the prostitute depiction, the official Palestinian Authority daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, continues publishing cartoons maligning those Arabs and Muslims who seek "normalization" with Israel. The recent meetings, which are far from normalization, are typically depicted as either a betrayal of the Palestinians or as a threat to the Arab and Muslim world. The following are further examples of cartoons in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, published as a result of these diplomatic meetings:
The attacks on Muslim normalization with Israel are not limited to the official daily. The following is one example, from today's Al-Quds, October 2, 2005: Arabs are criticized for secretly submitting to Israel, symbolized by the secret "kissing" of Israel's hand
PA
sermon: Katrina A Palestinian Authority religious leader preached on PA radio that the death and destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina was Allah's punishment to the United States for fighting Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq and the PA, and for threatening Iran and Syria. Yusuf Abu Sneina, Imam of Al-Aqsa Mosque, also repeated a common theme that America's time as a power will end, and America will fall like such earlier powers as "Persia and the Byzantine." The sermon was aired on Voice of Palestine, a PA-owned and -run radio station. The following is the text of the Friday sermon: "...And then Katrina happened, and the American president stood dazzled, beaten, defeated, stunned, lamenting his lot ... and the question we are presenting here is, was the USA able to stop Allah's power, and limit His will? Within a few hours the storm has destroyed enormous areas and the water flooded the houses... "O Muslims, the greatness of the USA has fallen in the face of the storm... O Muslims, always remember that oppression never lasts forever, that the era of tyrants will not last forever, that the era of tyrants will not last forever. Where are the kings of [Ancient] Persia and the Byzantine emperors? Where are the nations of the past? Where are the former powerful states? Allah alone is the one who takes revenge, the Mighty One. "Therefore, learn a lesson, O you who see through things, owners of wisdom, the oppression of the USA in the world - especially in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and here, in our own land Palestine - has crossed the line, and Allah was right when He said in Surat Hud [from the Quran],'These are some of the stories of communities that we relate unto thee: of them some are standing, and some have been mown down... Such is the chastisement of thy Lord when He chastises communities in the midst of their wrong; grievous, indeed, and severe is His chastisement. In that is a sign for those who fear the penalty of the hereafter: that is a Day for which mankind will be gathered together. That will be a Day of Judgment.' "Servants of Allah, isn't it high
time the USA pulled back its oppressing forces from Afghanistan and Iraq?
Isn't it high time the USA stopped threatening others, such as Iran and
Syria? Isn't it high time the USA stopped supporting Israel against the
oppressed Palestinians...?" PA
society: Destruction of Israel is desired and attainable goal Destroying Israel continues to be a desired and attainable goal candidly presented in Palestinian Authority discourse and education. The intensity of this hate message has increased on Palestinian Authority Television (PA TV) since Israel left Gush Katif in Gaza, as religious, political and educational leaders have encouraged Palestinians to perceive the events there as a first step towards Israel's destruction. Three PA TV programs stressed this goal last week. The first, a rebroadcast of a so-called "historical educational" program first aired in 2003, reiterated the PA teaching that Israel had no right to exist because all of Israel is "Palestine." Worse, it taught that Israel's continued existence is, by Israel's very nature, a threat to the entire Arab world. The PA TV broadcast showed a map of all of Israel marked as Palestine under the PLO flag, while the narrator taught that if Palestine is not "whole," meaning if Israel continues to exist, it is like a fatal knife thrust into the heart of the Arab nation, which threatens it in its entirety. The following are the words:
"The countries of our [Arab] homeland also have a heart... "If the heart is whole and healthy, then all the other parts are whole and healthy. The heart of the Arab homeland is Palestine. The homeland remains whole and healthy if Palestine is whole and healthy... "A stab in the heart is a deathblow. "Throughout the generations of
history there were those who directed the first stab at the heart of the
Arab nation, to Palestine." A Palestinian academic expressed the same anticipation of Israel's eventual destruction, describing the joy of the Gaza withdrawal as incomplete until Israel will be destroyed:
"Nothing compares to this joy,
the oppressed overcomes the oppressor . but our happiness will not be
complete only with the return of all of our lands - the [West] Bank, Jerusalem,
Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Haifa, Safed, and other stolen cities". PMW has been warning for years about the dangers of this PA indoctrination to see Israel's existence as illegitimate and temporary, especially among children. The results of this education were seen again this week as three children showed off their drawings of maps of "Palestine" on PA TV. All three children erased Israel's existence in their drawings while the maps were tied in barbed wire symbolizing "Palestine" as ensnared by Israel. These were some their explanations:
Mahmoud Eid: "In this painting I wanted to emphasize the chains that the occupation puts on our people. I painted this map of Palestine, with the Palestinian flag to say to our people that Palestine is still Palestine, and that the Palestinians deserve it - not the Jews." Udai: "I painted the map so we will not forget our place on the map." Significantly, the children call all of Israel "Palestine" and all of Israel is said to be "the Occupation." These conclusions are not surprising - they are the direct result of ten years of PA education. PA schoolbooks - even those published last year - replace Israel with "Palestine" on all maps. In addition, the word "occupation" in the school books refers to all of Israel. For example: "Colonialism: Palestine faced the
British occupation after the First World War in 1917, and the Israeli
occupation in 1948..." Palestinian Media Watch has reported on other examples of Palestinian children reflecting their education that Israel should be destroyed, thereby reflecting one of the central messages of their formal and informal education. One such example was a letter writing competition held by the PA Ministry of Education. The winner wrote of "returning" to Jaffa, a city in Israel. Read the bulletin here. Palestinian Media Watch finds it significant that PA TV would choose to air these programs the day before Israel withdrew its troops from Gaza. These programs reinforce the messages the PA educational system has been delivering for years - and teach Palestinian children to see the peace process as temporary and Israel's destruction as attainable and inevitable.
EU-funded
Palestinian "human rights" group sanctions terror and murder
of Israeli civilians The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) presents itself as a legitimate human rights organization. Indeed, it is perceived as such internationally, and receives funding from the EU's European Commission, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, the Ford Foundation and others (see listing below). However, Palestinian Media Watch's examination of PCHR's statements has revealed an alarming pattern of defending terrorists and their activities. Two recent press releases, both this week and last month, chide terrorist groups for their carelessness in implementing terrorism against Israel - but only because their military activities targeting Israeli civilians have been carried out from Palestinian civilian populated areas, resulting in Palestinian civilian casualties. Worse still, PCHR goes beyond the impropriety of ignoring the Israeli casualties from these often-deadly terror attacks - which have killed three Israeli children under the age of four and other civilians in the last year. PCHR expressly supports the idea of the "military activities" continuing, even though these attacks have been targeting Israeli civilians, as long as the terrorists pick their launching spots to avoid Palestinian casualties. Last month Palestinian terrorists launched rocket attacks aimed at civilians in the Israeli city of Sderot. These terror attacks failed: One rocket hit a Palestinian hospital and another hit a home, killing a Palestinian child and injuring nine others. In response, the PCHR issued a lengthy press release, criticizing the terrorists - not because they launched rockets at Israeli civilians, but because of their "repeated mistakes;" that is, hitting Palestinian civilians instead of Israeli civilians. Moreover, the self-proclaimed "human rights" organization went so far as to expressly support continued terror against civilians. In the final paragraph, instead of condemning the attacks that have been killing Israeli children, they placed conditions on these attacks: Future attacks should be launched from an acceptable place:
This week the pattern continued when an explosion of a Hamas weapons cache located in a residential area killed four Palestinian civilians. The PCHR release ended with another statement sanctioning terror:
The total PCHR message, then, is that terror attacks on Israeli civilians are acceptable "resistance" - as long as they are launched away from Palestinian civilians and as long as they kill only Israelis. Consistent with this ideology, none of the press releases on the PCHR website expresses condemnation for any rocket attacks that have hit their civilian targets and killed Israeli civilians, including young children. Palestinian Media Watch research has likewise found that PCHR falsifies news items to fit its political anti-Israel political agenda. One example is the July 16 press release, issued after Israel killed three Palestinian terrorists. While all three Palestinian dailies identified the dead as belonging to Hamas or Islamic Jihad, the PCHR falsely reported in its press release that is was only Israel who "alleged" their membership in the "resistance groups": "The IOF [Israeli Occupation Forces] state" that they "belong to the military wing of Hamas." This distortion allowed PCHR to mask the true identities of the terrorists and give support to its fallacious assertion that Israel was targeting "civilians." The title of their press release stressed this lie: "IOF [Israeli Occupation Forces] Escalate Attacks on Civilian Targets." In addition, PCHR's definition of Hamas and Islamic Jihad - groups that specialize in suicide terror against civilians and who are on the terror lists of America and European countries - as "resistance groups" raises yet more questions regarding PCHR's status as a legitimate "human right" organization. Falsifying a news report to defame Israel is not Palestinian human rights but Palestinian propaganda. Instructing terrorists to protect Palestinian civilians while continuing to launch rocket and other attacks on Israeli is not defending human rights, but rather defending and promoting terror. European and American Donors PCHR's website indicates that it is funded in Europe by:
Donors from the US include:
PCHR holds "Special Consultative Status" with the UN's Economic and Social Council. This seems to be yet another example of the growing number of documented cases in which well-meaning Western organizations fund Palestinian projects and organizations that either directly or indirectly promote, support or honor terrorists. PCHR Press Releases This week's PCHR press release, issued after the weapons cache exploded, reaches this conclusion:
This is followed by an admonition to the "resistance groups" not to conduct "military operations" in or around civilian areas:
It is clear that the term "military activities" does not refer solely to attacks against Israeli military targets, as that same term was used to refer to rocket attacks against civilians in the Israeli town of Sderot. Conclusions The Western-funded Palestinian Centre for Human Rights is involved in anti-Israel hate propaganda, falsifies news reports in order to defame Israel, instructs terrorists about acceptable locations from which to murder Israeli civilians, and condemns Palestinian rocket attacks because they missed their Israeli civilian targets and killed Palestinians instead. Those organizations that fund this centre in the belief they are contributing to the cause of human rights are actually funding terror promotion, and must share responsibility for its consequences.
PA
gets $50m from US, then calls for terror against US soldiers Palestinian Authority hatred of the United States is so deeply ingrained in its ideology that it continues to openly promote vicious anti-American hatred - even right after signing a deal to receive $50 million in direct aid from the US. Radio and television sermons by senior PA religious officials in the past week have presented the US as foremost among the "heretical" countries, and as an enemy trying to dismantle the Islamic world. In the presence of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, one religious leader called for Iraqis to intensify terrorist uprisings against American soldiers. The timing of these anti-US sermons is particularly significant - and not just because they come on the heels of the $50-million grant from the US. The PA has received considerable worldwide criticism for the hatred and calls for violence in its official sermons. In recent months, it has been reported that the texts of these sermons are now presented to PA officials for approval before the public broadcasts. The following is the report of the recent signing of an agreement for $50 million in US aid to the PA, followed by the two Palestinian Authority sermons of September 2, 2005. "The [Palestinian] National Authority
yesterday signed an agreement with the US Government, to the value of
50 million dollars. According to the agreement, Washington will provide
the National Authority with a grant for funding housing and infrastructure
projects. On the Palestinian side, Finance Minister Dr. Salam Fayad, signed
[the agreement] and for the American side, the US Consul General, Jacob
Willis, and the vice manager of the US Agency for International Development,
David Harden, signed the agreement". Yusuf Abu Sneina, Imam of Al-Aqsa Mosque "Anyone who watches closely the nature of our world today, can see that the heretical countries - first and foremost, the USA - have succeeded greatly in tearing our Islamic world apart by disintegrating and splitting up more than one Islamic state, intending to weaken it, disperse [its citizens] and plunder its resources… It is terrorism, and there's no choice but to fight it. "As regards Iraq, there is much to say about it. The USA has composed a draft of the Iraqi Constitution in a way that it will serve US interests and enhance the disintegration of Iraq's unity. The new constitution includes federal solutions, which are dividing Iraq into small countries… "A federal government hides behind it; the seeds of a future civil war… The USA is planning to rule Saudi Arabia and disintegrate it, too, despite the close friendly relations between the two countries... "Is the USA going to fulfill its
ambitions and aggressive plans? And, for how long shall the submission
and surrender to the plans of the enemies of the [Islamic] nation?" Yusuf Jum'a Salamah, PA Minister of the Waqf and Religious Affairs, in the presence of Mahmoud Abbas and other senior PA officials "We say to the dear, heroic Iraqi
nation, turn this incident [the accidental death of 1,000 Iraqis] into
an opportunity for resisting [term regularly used by PA to describe terrorist
attacks] the [American] occupation, for uniting families, for unifying
the forces and for opposition to the policy of dismantling Iraq and dividing
it geographically."
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